Before the new year starts...

Let's get a bit more caught up with the past couple weeks, eh? :) First a quick picture collage:

Pictured here, we have (roughly from left to right and top to bottom)...

- my three boys just before the annual piano recital (Micah didn't actually play or participate but didn't want to be left out in the shirt and tie department)...
- Aunt Cas playing soccer in the snow in the front yard...
- me, Cas and Mom sitting with Santa at Denver's Zoo Lights dealio...
- Asher at his very first recital (he played Jingle Bells and introduced himself so nicely)...
- Micah strumming his new guitar that Nana got him for Christmas...
- Noah decorating glass ball ornaments with alcohol inks...
- Asher sucking leftover chocolate from the bag while we were making chocolate candies (in molds) for our neighbors...
- all three boys in their new Christmas pjs waiting with their Santa bags Christmas morning...and,
- a sampling of the homemade candies we made to give our neighbors (this is the first year we've tried our hand at homemade candies using these fun molds...way easier than I anticipated and very fun!...love how they turned out!)

So. When I left off, I'd gotten to the Sunday before Christmas. Here's what's happened since then:

Monday...(December 22) my brother Joe arrived and we all had dinner down in Longmont at Zach's house

Tuesday...Uncle Joe made good on his promise to make sugar cookies with the boys...at least 5 dozen of them! The boys had a blast helping make the dough (and eat some of it) and then roll it out (and snitch some more) and then cut shapes (and eat some yet again) and cook them and decorate them. Okay, mostly, they loved decorating them (and were seriously fortunate not to get sick, lol). Micah's technique left a bit to be desired (as he was seriously globbing on the frosting) but the boy knows how to work it and scored a number of cookies to eat as we finished frosting (if only to keep him out of the frosting itself):

Noah and Asher, on the other hand, got a bit artsy with their cookies and we ended up with a number of little masterpieces, lol. :)

Wednesday...We went to Christmas Eve Mass and then took our family picture:

Yeah, we took some "serious" ones, too...but this one's way more fun, right? :) After that, we headed down to Longmont to join up with my mom, brothers, sister, sister in law and niece for a lovely prime rib dinner and the opening of some of the gifts. (Normally, we only let the boys open one or two gifts Christmas Eve, but we made an exception this year and let them open the gifts from Nana, Cas, Joe and Zach/Marcy/Makenna so as not to be completely overwhelmed with gifts to open Christmas morning.) While there, we managed a few group pictures. This is my favorite:

Apparently, we just like crazy pictures like this. :) I also took some of the inevitable "opening the packages" pictures. Sometimes I wonder why I do that, as they all come out looking the same and don't really say much more than "we opened lots of presents", kwim? But, every once in awhile, you get lucky and end up with a perfect picture like this:

Man, I wish you could have experienced this boy's joy first hand. He was seriously delighted with this little RC car Aunt Cas and Uncle Joe gave him. His exclamations of "just what I always wanted!" throughout the night were fantastic, too. Awesome reminder of the simple joys of Christmas. :)

Thursday...Merry Christmas! We woke up to boys staring at us (which is, strangely, unusual for us, as we've had to actually wake boys up most Christmas mornings)...all decked out in their new Christmas pjs and anxious to get downstairs. :) We then opened gifts and hung out for most of the day...putting toys together and exclaiming over all the cool things. Nana, Cas and Joe joined us during the afternoon for some fun Cranium game play and more eating before finally heading back to Longmont and then home to Washington. (They flew out the next morning.) Christmas evening, Nathan headed to the airport to pick up his parents and the three of them made it back to the house just before midnight. Figuring we may as well get it out of the way, we stayed up and opened another round of presents before putting boys to bed for the night. Whew. Before that, though, I managed to get this picture of my three boys:

Aren't they cute? :)

Friday...we took the boys to Toys R Us to deal with the giftcards burning a hole in their pockets (and came away with even more lego sets) and picked up some supplies for a lego project Nathan and the boys are working on. Beyond that, we took it easy with some games and lego assembly at home with Grandpa John and Grandma Nancy. Quiet day.

Saturday...Nathan and I escaped to run some errands (okay, okay, the REI giftcards were burning a hole in our pockets also, LOL) and enjoy dinner out while John and Nancy watched the boys at home.

Sunday...after church and lunch out, we returned home to watch some dismal football, finish up our holiday postcards (woooohoooooo...got them in the mail before the end of the year, which hasn't happened in years!), work on the lego table in the garage (that will get relocated to the basement when finished), and stuff like that.

Monday...John & Nancy took the boys to a nearby park, Nathan took me to the dentist (where I had another wisdom tooth pulled...joy), and Nathan and I bought a new minivan. Yes, amazingly, we were finally able to replace "old red" (our 1995 Nissan Quest) thanks to generous Christmas checks, finally having paid off Nathan's car, and the awesome deals to be had right now given the end of the year and the economy in general. Woohoo!

Tuesday...John, Nancy and I took the boys to the Discovery Science Museum for a very good presentation about rainbows and light and then wandered the museum. After we got home, Nathan and I went and picked up our new minivan and surprised the boys when we drove up to the house in it:

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. :) It's a 2008 Kia Sedona in Glacier Blue. Micah was so excited he wanted to sleep in the van all night and almost refused to get out. :) Noah and Asher were similarly delighted, particularly since this van comes with a dvd player (which, we've already explained, will only be used on trips over an hour in length). Personally, I'm thrilled to have sliding doors on both sides. :) We're very much looking forward to finally being able to go on longer trips (our poor old van wasn't quite up to driving over the Rockies) and hope to really take advantage of that in the coming year.

So. That's what's been going on. Busy and good. Whew.

Tomorrow, Nathan and I will celebrate our 12 year anniversary, and Thursday we'll welcome in the new year (but, sadly, John and Nancy will head home for Washington). Should be good... :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

We're in the home stretch now, eh? :) Wanted to wish you all a very merry holiday...hoping you're all healthy and happy and warm this week (and, fingers crossed, not delayed in any travels due to weather!). I need to go finish wrapping a few things then we'll be heading to the Children's Mass with my mom, sister and at least one brother (not sure if Zach and Makenna are coming or not). After that, we'll drive down to Longmont and have Christmas Eve dinner and probably open a few things. ;) I've got so many pictures from the past week, but they'll have to wait...right now, it's more important to spend time with family than on the computer editing pictures, lol! Maybe we'll do a last half of December wrap up next week, okay?

Well, off again for now...happy day to you all!!

Catching up...

Um, the past few days have been jam-packed. I could try to truly catch things up and include photos, but...to be perfectly honest...I've got enough else on my list between now and Christmas. ;) So, here's a super quick review:

Wednesday...my mom and baby sister arrived...the boys had a huge dart gun fight to induct Aunt Cas

Thursday...the boys got Cas out in the snow to play soccer...did some shopping (Mom and Cas needed to finish getting a few things)...made some more ornaments...watched Miracle on 34th Street

Friday...made jar candles at our homeschool co-op (my mom helped Micah and Aunt Cas helped Asher...fun times)...ventured to the Zoo Lights exhibit at the Denver Zoo and saw Santa (flippin' cold, but worth the trip...my brother Zach who now lives nearby and his youngest daughter came with us)...snagged a late dinner at Red Robin

Saturday...I got all my Christmas packages in the mail!!!...Mom, Cas, Nathan and I were able to go see a movie (our awesome neighbor watched the boys)...boys had their piano recital at the mall (it was Asher's first, and both boys did a fabulous job...they were so adorable in their dress shirts and ties)...rewarded patience and good performances with ice cream...home again to eat dinner and then make handmade chocolate candies for our neighbors (never tried this before, but can see how this could get addicting!)

Sunday...Nathan and the boys hung out at home while Mom and I did some more shopping...watched the classic Rudolph and Frosty cartoons...Cas and Mom headed down to Longmont to stay at Zach's till they head home on the 26th

Whew. My other brother Joe will fly in tomorrow (Monday) and stay with us for at least a couple days. He's promised to make sugar cookies with the boys. We'll all do Christmas Eve dinner down in Longmont at Zach's. The boys are getting antsy about Christmas being so soon. I still have a number of things on my list to get done before Christmas (making some ornaments of my own for each of the boys, wrapping their gifts, laundry, stuff like that, lol). So. I should get going... ;)

Happy, happy holidays to you all...on the off chance I don't make it back to this blog before Thursday, lol!

And the winner is...

Elizabeth P....

I shipped all my cards. I'm not sending presents this year. I think the ornaments your boys did are really cute. I love making ornaments with my girls. Thanks for the chance to win your book. :)

December 17, 2008 | Elizabeth P

Congrats! Email me your mailing info and I'll get this out to you, okay?

Thanks so much to all for your comments...wish I could send each and every one of you a copy! In the meantime, my mom and sister arrived last night and the boys have already gotten Aunt Cassy out to play soccer in the snow, lol! Will be back later! :)

Yet more ornaments, indoor lunch, a tree story...and a giveaway!

First off, for the giveaway info, you'll have to read to the end of this post. Don't worry, I didn't forget. ;)

So, are you tired of ornaments yet? ;) Here are days 11, 12 and 13...on day 11, we made jingle bell Santa's from a little kit (okay, I did much of the making since this involved a hot glue gun, but the boys directed and loved adding these to their trees). On day 12, I let the boys do a bit of free-form ornament making...gave them a length of (coated) wire and a heap of beads. They liked making these spin so all ended up making similar ornaments. And on day 13, we brought back an ornament we made in 2003. Noah actually came up with the idea...well, he (at 3 year old, when we were doing these) saw a wooden train in a catalog and loved it so much it became the inspiration for our holiday ornaments that year. Here's the "plain" version (personally, I like the plain ones and this is what we did in 2003):

This year, though, the boys opted to paint their pieces before assembly...gives 'em character, don't you think? :) So, here are Asher's. He had fun mixing red and blue paint:

Here are Noah's:

And here are Micah's. I love how his train turned out (after considerable drying time...who knew paint could be lumpy? LOL):

In other news, I survived Monday's lunch hour. :) Fortunately, there were about 6 of us there to corral kids. We ended up letting them mostly do their own thing inside while monitoring for safety issues.

Also, we finally got our tree decorated! We picked it up on Sunday...well, Nathan and Asher picked it out. See, we got to the place (where we've gone every year but one since living in CO...nice local trees, freshly cut...good prices and nice service). We got out and wandered a bit and immediately decided we were not bundled up enough, despite the snow boots, double layers, winter coats, scarfs, gloves and such. It was about -2 degrees I think. Maybe a bit warmer but with the wind chill definitely colder than that. Anyhow, Noah then declared that he simply *had* to use the bathroom. That seemed like a good enough reason to get out of the cold so we trekked back to the van and over to the nearby McDonalds...at which point, Noah, Micah and I opted to stay indoors while Nathan and Asher went back to get a tree. They picked a good one. :)

So, we got it set up and got the lights up Monday. Tonight we got the ornaments on and decorations around the rest of the house, finally. Yay!! Will try to take some pictures later.

And. (Yes, finally, this is the giveaway part of the post, lol.) Since I'm in such a Christmasy mood now...and since I finally got my copies of my book today (Tuesday)...and since I just like you all...who wants a free copy of my book? Leave a comment here...tell me how you like today's ornaments and whether you've shipped all your Christmas packages yet (I'm nosey and it'll make me feel better if you haven't either, LOL). I'll pick a random winner Thursday at noon-ish. Woohoo!

Oh, and be sure to check back to see if you're the winner...the way this site is set up, you'll need to email me with your info. :)